How many toys do your kids have?

We have gotten rid of a lot of toys here. It is SO much nicer to not have so much stuff around.

For group toys, we’ve kept 1 hot wheel car box with play mat, 1 large box with a wooden train set, 1 large box of legos, 1 small box of a wooden car set (like trains and works with them), 1 kitchen with 1 box of play food, 1 bin dress up clothes. The first four are rotated (only ONE out at a time although I would probably allow the wooden train and car sets together). The other two are out all the time but in a tucked away place so they don’t bother me : ). We also have a bin with infant/toddler toys for our little ones. That one is accessible all the time.

For individual toys, I’ve decided not to tell them what they can and can’t keep. Although I do pick up twaddly toys when I see them laying around and know no one plays with them and throw them away. They are each allowed one “treasure drawer” to keep their things. For our oldest two, it is a foot locker (ages 13 and 14 so allowed a bit more room). The next three each have a rubbermaid bin (ages 9, 8, 6). Our littlest two have a drawer (ages 3 and 2). If they can’t fit their things in their treasure bin, it gets cleaned out and decluttered. I do help with this for those under 10. They all also have a shelf for their personal books (again olders have more-so 3-5 shelves).

For games/puzzles: We have an old dresser with the games and puzzles organized inside. Top drawer is older kid games. Second drawer is puzzles. Third drawer is middle age games (ie clue, chinese checkers). Bottom is little kid games (ie candyland, sorry). They all know which drawer things go in and are only allowed one thing at a time.

Twaddly toys: make sure you watch your child with the toys before deciding they are twaddle. Some toys (like plastic animals) I would consider twaddle but my kids use them to act out play schemes, make nature habitats they’ve observed, etc. So we have kept those for that reason. The plastic animals and big trucks are in the sandbox outside.

To decide which to keep you may want to keep them all out of sight. If you don’t allow them to have them for a week or so, they will start forgetting the ones that they really don’t like. Then let them ask for what they want (by name or a really good description). Those that are asked for within a month or so get kept. The rest can go. If they can’t remember the name or can’t describe them, they aren’t a favorite : ) so bye-bye!

HTH, Rebecca

Here’s a little inspiration: http://lusaorganics.typepad.com/clean/2010/10/downsizing-and-a-challenge-for-you.html

Callie 🙂

Sadly non-twaddle toys actually make a bigger mess than the twaddle type. I mean one plastic toy that sings etc is easier to pick up than 50 blocks…he he! 

Anyway my kids have way less toys than most kids but still a lot. As you said between Christmas, birthdays and random gifts it adds up.  But if they don’t play with it gone, if there is no place for it gone, if they don’t take care of it gone, etc.  We don’t even allow twaddle toys.  We don’t buy them and Grandparents know better.  If they did get one it would be regifted or maybe they could play with it for the week until they become bored that it only does 1 thing.  Really all of the toys we have do more than one thing or are pretend type toys like dolls (she has only 2 though) or another example legos.  Once the set gets boring they can remake it into 100 other things. 

We have a lage tub of duplos, a large tub of legos, large tub of wooden train track and accessories, some blocks, animals, noahs ark, 2 dolls, play food, doll bed and bench, lots of games and a few other random dress up type toys.  We have a set place with bins for toys and once it seems overflowing we go through it together.  The kids always help because I might like a toy or think they play with it and my oldest will say we don’t like that so it goes, or if we have room for only 1 thing and they have to choose between 2 or 3 toys they pick which stays.  As I said before though if it was twaddle I would just get rid of it.

They way I do cleanup is before the youngest 2 go to be it gets done every night.  They all help.  The younger 2 (17 months) mostly watch or sometimes they are int he bath but the older 3 (ages 2.5-8) have to clean.  Either I poke my head in and assign the 2.5 yo and 4yo a job or I deligate my oldest to assign jobs.  He has shown himself faithful in doing this and usually does most of the work because he like to be done quickly.  But the 2 & 4yo don’t do well with “just clean up”.  It is too overwhelming for them.  My oldest is fine with just clean up but not the rest.

You may have to sit in there with them for a while and assign jobs to each of them.  Do this night after night until you can assign a job and leave, come back and assign another job.  It will eventually get easier.  I find, at least for mine, that having them clean up all the blocks, then all the animals, then all the train track…etc  they do better than just saying clean up.  

I would really look at the toys and get rid of what is twaddle, what cannot be multi use or inspire imagination and what cannot stand the test of time.    That is just me though.  Have a garage sale and let them do something with the money, give to church/charity or even go out for ice cream.   Here there is a place we give the toys to that is for underprivileged children, so they know the toys are going to children that don’t have any.

I don’t have a set number of toys just as I said if they are overflowing they go.  All toys fit in one corner of the older 3’s room (aside from legos they stay at the table due to small parts).  I don’t consider books toys per say so they have their own shelf with the board books that the younger ones can have on the bottom.

To me most anything plastic with flashy lights and sound is junk.

I have found that my girls do really well with “if it is not off the floor in the right place when the timer goes off, (15 min) then Mom gets it and you never get it back”.  I wish I’d done that earlier.  =)

I have a friend who lets her five kids have one tub of toys apiece – the tub is not large.  Anything that fits in it they keep.  The rest go.  They quickly sorted out the twaddle / non-twaddle for themselves after that. 

I have to admit, that I haven’t got that brave yet. =)

We’ve been there and done that with the clutter and toys, and I’m so glad we got a grip and purged! Right now, our ds has wicker baskets that slide under his bed and a bookshelf with books and a few items like a bucket of soldiers and his Planet Frog. He has 3 baskets of toys: one for PlayMobile, one for dress-up costumes, one for cars. He also has a large, plastic tub of Legos. He keeps his Lincoln Logs in his closet in a bucket, and he also has a wooden train set in a medium-size tub. At the end of his bed is another wicker basket of stuffed animals, bats, balls, and a Frisbee or two.

Dd has less, but that’s because most of the toys they share are stored in ds’s room. She has two metal buckets under a cute bench in her room: one for her PlayMobile, one for misc. things like play food, a My Little Pony. She has some baby doll items in her large closet. She also has an armoir with a built-in hanging bar and shelves. This is where we keep her array her dress-up dresses and ballet tu-tus, her books, and her stuffed animals. She keeps her paper dolls in this armoir as well. My kids actually play with stuffed animals all the time, so we have quite a few.

I do keep games in the top of ds’s closet. They have to ask me to get the games down when they want to play. And there is a small tub of Mr. Potato Head stuff in the top of dd’s closet. They have to ask for that as well.

For keeping messes at bay, we have two times a day of cleaning up: after lunch and before bedtime. We also do not allow battery-operated toys, even from grandparents. Like houseofchaos, they may play with one or two things at a time, then clean up before moving on to the next thing. I am pretty sure we’ve finally rid ourselves of the twaddle toys, thank goodness!! 

I do love getting rid of stuff…maybe a little too much. I just know that our environment and my attitude is better when we have less stuff.

Blessings,

Lindsey

My boys are 5 and 7. We do have legos – it is one of our “will add to toys” – no blocks.  For us the legos and tinker toys can build anything they want.  We do have puzzles and both educational/board games.  We only keep about 3-4 age appropriate puzzles for each child in one big box.  I cut out the pic and put it and pieces in a ziplock back and store them in a box.  But board games are put up in top of closet and they have to ask for them.  We have lots of game nights.  I don’t normally let them play with the educational games except in school so they don’t get old quickly. 

We live in the city and don’t really have a yard but I have one basket of park toys – chalk, balls, kite, sand toys.  These stay in the car. 

It is a hard thing initially – to decide what to part with and what to keep.  But I kinda was forced into it – that summer each of us had approx 100 sq ft.  So we had to pick our faves.  And during that summer I saw the boys get so creative.  For example, they used their tinker toys and my sons knitted blanket and built a volleyball net and used a balloon and played volleyball for about 2 hours.  They would move the net to various places to decide which place was the funniest. 

The absences of things forces creativity and ingenuity.  It has worked well in our case and I (nor the boys) missed any of the things we got rid of. 

Amy